General Motors plans redundancies

General Motors announced yesterday that it is to shed 354 positions at its Luton plant, where around 1,500 employees make light commercial vehicles, including the Vauxhall Vivaro van.

A period of consultation has now begun between unions and local GM management at the plant, which produced 87,175 Vivaro vans in 2008.

According to GM, the loss of staff will be in line with its 2010 forecast production volume.

Yesterday’s announcement follows a meeting held on 25 November, where Nick Reilly, chief executive officer for Opel/Vauxhall, presented representatives of the European Employee Forum with plans to make the Opel and Vauxhall brands viable.

At the meeting, Reilly said Opel/Vauxhall has to reduce capacity by around 20 per cent, which could mean a reduction of approximately 9,000 jobs in Europe.

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